I don't manage to write down what is in my head

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ouroborosUK
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19 Mar 2014, 5:15 pm

I am trying to write a big post for this forum explaining the cause of my anxiety as I understand it now, following some progress I did with the help of my therapist. I would be really happy to share it and get some advice and comments from the community here. (I value my therapist's opinion but she is neither autistic nor a specialist of ASD and you can help in some ways she can't.) But the issue is quite complex, I can only accurately describe it by giving some example and details from my life, and even then I have some trouble finding the right words and the right text structure to explain everything in my head.

So instead of posting that text which I don't manage to write, I post this one asking for help. Did you ever had the same problem, trying to put some thoughts into words for a forum post, letter, diary entry or whatever and struggling with it ? And do you have any good method or idea to solve it ?


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A bit obsessed with vocabulary, semantics and using the right words. Sorry if it is a concern. It's the way I think, I am not hair-splitting or attacking you.


Prof_Pretorius
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19 Mar 2014, 5:26 pm

I would advise you to write it out in small chunks. Just type out a couple of paragraphs and ask us to respond.


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19 Mar 2014, 5:54 pm

Write a bit, leave it for some minutes, then come back and try to write more.



Wind
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19 Mar 2014, 6:02 pm

I have the same problem. I recently wrote an E-mail to someone I've been getting to know, and told them the story about getting my phone back. They said what I wrote doesn't make sense.

Quote:
Long story -
Lloyds who have insured my phone told me they needed proof of purchase of phone, so I phoned T-Mobile to ask them. They said that the phone had been reported as been handed into the police, and gave me the number of the woman who handed it in.
We phoned her, said she handed it into (location removed) police station. Went there, no phone, and no record of it. Tried for an hour or so to get hold of her, phone was off, so it was now safe to assume she was full of (bleep).
We went to police station to report it now as stolen, they looked up the womans details with the mobile number I was given. They left a voicemail on her home phone.
Half an hour later, her phone was on again, she picked up, arranged to meet up with the phone.
Got the phone, everything was with it, the sim card, the case, etc. but T-mobile the (bleeps) let her unblock the phone when she phoned up, so she had been using it. Thankfully not the sim card though.
What a nightmare!


My writing is all over the place :( I have also tried learning to write blogs, but what I intended to talk about ends up a string of word vomit, so I haven't tried since. I've always had this problem though, so ehhhhh. I have learn to live with the fact I'm not intelligent at writing, speaking or reading.


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wozeree
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19 Mar 2014, 6:19 pm

Dude, that made perfect sense to me, and it was a little bit of complication, so it took some ability to make it clear.



ouroborosUK
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19 Mar 2014, 6:22 pm

Wind wrote:
I have the same problem. I recently wrote an E-mail to someone I've been getting to know, and told them the story about getting my phone back. They said what I wrote doesn't make sense.!


If the e-mail you wrote is what you posted, I personally think it makes perfect sense :) Sure, it may have been better written, but I had no trouble at all understanding what you mean and I don't think I could mistake your expression for anything you didn't mean. So from my point of view it makes sense.


Wind wrote:
My writing is all over the place :( I have also tried learning to write blogs, but what I intended to talk about ends up a string of word vomit, so I haven't tried since. I've always had this problem though, so ehhhhh. I have learn to live with the fact I'm not intelligent at writing, speaking or reading.


Maybe you can learn. The thing is that I am usually not bad at writing ; it is just the present situation that confuses me. But I used to be quite bad at it, I needed to learn.

Anyway, both you, starkid and Prof_Pretorius gave me some valuable advice. If I can't explain it all, I will do it in smaller chunks. Thanks everyone :)

For what it is worth, here is the way I usually write a text :
1) If any, a form of introduction, greeting (Hi / Dear friends / Dear colleagues / etc.), and/or description of the context for the communication (as a reply to your email / following your discussion at XXX / after some work I did on that issue / ...)
2) A straightforward description of why I am sending that message, in one or a few sentence. Even if it is jumping directly to the conclusion.
3) A detailed description of the reasoning and/or other elements that brought me to that
4) The exact thing I am stating or asking for, in a detailed way (the samne thing as 2 with more details and in some cases more emotion ; without being afraid to repeat 2 )
5) Conclusion, thanks, etc.

(The problem in my current situation is that 3) is a huge mess)


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A bit obsessed with vocabulary, semantics and using the right words. Sorry if it is a concern. It's the way I think, I am not hair-splitting or attacking you.


SammichEater
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19 Mar 2014, 8:08 pm

I usually don't try to organize my thoughts. I just let them flow. I start by making a statement, asserting a claim, or asking a question, and then I try to elaborate on it. If, during that time, another idea crosses my mind, I simply start a new paragraph and repeat the process. It doesn't generally work for organized, academic writing, but for anything else, it's usually fine.

Sometimes I'll only have one or two paragraphs. However, sometimes I'll have as many as 30 or 50, whenever I'm trying to explain some problem that I have. In the end, the process of writing it all out helps me discover what it is that I wanted to say in the first place. So even if I end up writing 10 or so pages, by the time I'm done, I can conclude it all in a sentence or two.



Marybird
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20 Mar 2014, 12:47 am

I have the same problem.
Everything is jumbled up in my head.
It's all there but don't know how to put it together.
It helps to write one sentence at a time.
One thought at a time.
And somehow it comes out making sense.